The Ten Step Bully Program
by Sakurazukamori6
Summary: Sakuragi really does go out of his way to annoy Rukawa. Why is that? SakuragiRukawa
1. Week 1

**Week 1**

**

* * *

****Monday**

They have a class together.

They have a class together and Sakuragi is throwing wadded up pieces of paper at him.

He can hear the sound of it being carefully ripped out of a notebook--that most likely isn't his--he can hear the crinkle of it as Sakuragi balls it in his fist and prepares to launch it at him.

Sakuragi writes little notes on his projectiles.

"Stop it."

Sakuragi is sitting two seats behind him.

"I said stop it."

He knows Sakuragi can hear him.

Sakuragi throws another paper ball at him.

It hits him on the side of the face.

And despite _all the_ annoying ass, little things Sakuragi is doing right now, he can't find it within himself to ignore that wadded up piece of paper and the message it relays.

So he opens it.

It reads, "If you fall asleep, the paper balls will turn into 'Sakuragi's Special Spitballs'."

He fears for his sanity.

He fears for his sanitation.

He fears for his life, and his moral character, and his dignity, because now _he's_ throwing his _own_ wadded up pieces of paper at Sakuragi's red target of a head.

And he knows it's childish, and wrong, and he's wasting a lot of precious energy that could go towards basketball and yet…

He laughs to himself when one nails Sakuragi in the eye.

Sakuragi curses and shouts something about 'never being able to see again.'

His revenge is just made sweeter by those six uttered words.

**

* * *

**

**Tuesday**

Sakuragi has spit in his drink.

He has actually spit in his drink.

Not any saliva or anything.

Just his gum.

In his water bottle.

He watched him do it.

And the fucker was smiling.

Because he had spit chewing gum—by the looks of it, chewed up chewing gum—into his water bottle.

Motherfucker.

* * *

**Wednesday**

Today is Wednesday. It is the middle of the week.

School children are half celebrating because there's two more days until the beginning of the weekend.

This time calls for celebration.

And fun filled naps.

Except he isn't sleeping right now.

No.

He's too busy being gifted with the sight of Sakuragi deflating his bicycle tire.

Deflated actually, because it happened about two minutes ago, but he forgot to act those two minutes ago and twenty-three seconds—if he's being accurate—because he was too busy being shocked as hell that Sakuragi was actually deflating his bicycle tire.

Not just one.

But both of them.

And the only words Sakuragi offers up to explain his horrendous actions are, "Extra jogging practice."

**

* * *

**

**Thursday**

Sakuragi has stolen his basketball uniform.

He can't find it.

Sakuragi has stolen his basketball uniform.

* * *

**Friday**

He's waiting.

He's waiting and watching and searching.

And waiting.

Because he knows when he least expects it, Sakuragi is going to do something and he needs to be prepared.

Therefore the waiting and the bags under his eyes, because he's not sleeping well and he can no longer nap in school, his reasons are obvious.

He's waiting.

He feels paranoid.

He's going to hit Sakuragi with a bat when he sees him.

He thinks the sleep depravation is making him a little mental, because he plays basketball, not baseball.

No.

He won't hit him with a bat.

He'll ram his head into the metal basketball pole.

Because that sounds like it would be very effective.

So he waits, and waits, and waits, and Sakuragi doesn't show.

Not even one strand of red hair.

He feels exhausted and suddenly he drops off to reclaim his sleep. A nice, calming nap that has his nerves relaxing back into place, his headaches going away, his anger dissipating into the blissful feeling of…

Sakuragi dive bombing off a chair and landing on him elbow first!

He screams.

The worst part of all of this is that he screams.

It's a mix of angry, painful, angry, more painful and just…

"Get off me you IDIOT!"**

* * *

****Saturday**

No School.

No Sakuragi.

He sleeps the entire day.**

* * *

****Sunday**

Still sleeping.


	2. Week 2

**Week 2 ****

* * *

**

**Monday**

He's late for class, because he was still practically asleep when he walked into English.

"Good of you to show up Mr. Kaede. Why don't you take a seat next to your friend and fellow tardy member Mr. Sakuragi, if you would please."

Life he's realized was now out to get him.

He'd had it good for some sixteen years.

But now:

"Mr. Dokou, Rukawa's looking at my answers," Sakuragi lies and then goes onto say, "I don't blame him since I'm the super genius here and he sleeps _allllllll _the time in class.

Mr. Dokou looks at Sakuragi and then bursts into laughter. He then goes onto say loudly, so that the entire class can hear,"The moment that anyone, _anyone _cheats on your…"assignments" I will promptly resign my twenty-three year career as an educator.

* * *

**Tuesday**

"Okay something is definitely wrong here." Akagi, god bless his perceptive soul has stopped Sakuragi from hiding his gym shoes, again.

"Get over here you imbecile. What the hell are you…oh for the love of…Why do I have such children on my team." He rears back and then slams Sakuragi's head against a locker.

He hopes it knocks back whatever screws loose in his head.

"He started it!"

Apparently it's made it worse. His own anger--on the bright side of things--is currently choking him and he doesn't know if he should just hit Sakuragi, or ignore him, or try to calm down.

So he ends up telling him off instead, "What are you talking about? You've been harrassing me for this past week, so just stop throwing your idiotic paper balls at me, stop spitting your gum in my water bottle, stop letting out the air in my tires, stop stealing my uniform and basketball equipment when I'm not looking, stop performing your flying wresting maneuvers on me while I'm sleeping, stop accusing me of cheating on your stupid, non-existent homework. Just stop it, or I'll kill you."

Wow. He didn't even know he was bottling up that kind of rage.

Everyone for the most part was shocked too, and so they were all shocked together.

That is, until Sakuragi blurted out, "Make me, fox boy."

And then it was his fist connecting with Sakuragi's face while simultaneously trying to choke him…to death.

**

* * *

**

**Wednesday **

He had a busted lip and his jaw felt raw, and he had bruises on his stomach from where Sakuragi had tried to perform some type of botched Suplex move that had gone horribly, horribly wrong, if he was any kind of judge of these things.

* * *

**Thursday **

Sakuragi was put in timeout.

Akagi _actually_ had a system where you could be put in time-out.

Sakuragi was now facing the wall, his back completely exposed to enemy fire.

Sakuragi Hanamichi, sixteen years old, 6'2, 183 pounds, starter for the Shohoku High School Basketball team was currently in time out.

Rukawa thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever saw.

**

* * *

**

**Friday**

Kogure had pulled him aside during practice to whisper, "Akagi asked me to mediate, so if there's anything I can-"

"Tell him to stop harassing me." He didn't need time to think about an answer, he'd already had one.

"Okay." Kogure said, his hands up in front of him, his movements and his speech slow as if not to startle a small animal. Then Kogure, the happy bastard was…smiling at him and patting him on the back and…laughing.

He was laughing.

At him.

Did he not understand what the word harassment meant?

"Rukawa…"

What about restraining order? Did that ring any bells?

"Rukawa-kun…did you ever think that maybe…Sakuragi wants to…um…"

"Wants to kill me. I've thought about that and all the ways he can do it."

"No, no." Kogure was shaking his head and that smile was still on his face. "Did it ever occur to you that Sakuragi might…"

"Might be insane. Yes, it's the only explanation for his behavior. It keeps me up at night."

Kogure sighed. "Wow, you basketball players are so dense."

"What?"

Kogure smiled, but a bit shakily this time, "Tense! You're tense. You should try to relax. It's starting to effect your game."

Yeah I know. Thank you Captain Obvious.

"Rukawa-kun, maybe you…um instead of trying to outmatch Sakuragi…why don't you take a different approach. I mean, you both play completely different games of basketball. It's only normal that you'd play differently at life as well."

Hmm…that kind of made sense.

"How about," he continued, "When Sakuragi is being 'mean' to you, how about instead of shouting and fighting with him, you tell him you're sorry for whatever you did to get him so upset."

"No."

"It's just a thought," Kogure said, feeling suddenly pinned by that dark, bone-chilling stare. "You don't have to mean it. Just say you're sorry and all will be forgiven. I understand that you have your pride, but do you honestly value pride over…" he takes a few seconds to think about what he's going to say, "Sleep perhaps?"

Rukawa realized that this boy, this senior was a…genius.

* * *

**Saturday**

Fake apology training commences.

Basketball practice.

**

* * *

**

**Sunday**

Review in fake-apology-intensive-training exercises.

Resume basketball practice.

Sleep.


	3. Week 3

**Week 3**

**

* * *

****Monday **

"How do you like _this_?"

Sakuragi has graffitied a very crudely depicted story on the outside walls of Mr. Dokou's classroom about the tales of the Big, Bad Wolf/Fox thingie.

Starring:

Sakuragi Hanamichi as the courageous and handsome Big, Red, Riding Hooded-Jacket.

Rukawa Kaede as the leading villain.

Supporting Roles were as follows:

Haruka as the granny (No Incest)

Kogure as a random chipmunk in the forest

And Akagi as the rampaging gorilla (This feature was also a cross over w/ King Kong)

Sakuragi was currently drawing the wolf/fox thingie (himself) gratuitously being decapitated since Big, Red, Riding Hooded-Jacket had now somehow fused with the woodchopper in the story and had become Super, Red Riding Hooded-Jacket.

Sakuragi was looking at him expectantly.

He was also looking at Sakuragi, then he took a big breath…

And punched him in the face.

Then he took another big breath and said he was sorry for "making Sakuragi resort to such acts" –but not for punching him in the face. That was intentional. Though he didn't vocally express that opinion.

Sakuragi was holding his bloody nose now, so when he said "What?" It sounded like "Rut?"

"I'm sorry," he repeated and he knew he couldn't have imagined that surprised/shocked/freaked out expression on his rival's face.

"You're…"

And then Sakuragi Hanamichi was blushing and sputtering and running away.

Quickly.

**

* * *

**

**Tuesday-Thursday**

Sakuragi was avoiding him.

Like the Black Plague.

Like Algebra.

Like that really annoying guy in the Kendo club.

Life was good.

* * *

**Friday**

"Wow" Sakuragi looks really focused, doesn't he?" Kogure said as he looked over his shoulders at Akagi, "Ne?"

"What the hell has him so pumped up?"

"So did things go as planned?"

Rukawa had the unfortunate timing of having to walk over here at this exact moment to sit down on the bench and tie his shoelaces.

"I guess." He said and Kogure laughed.

"It looked like it more than worked. He's redirecting all the energy he used to put into harassing you into basketball."

"The idiot actually has some talent." Akagi posed as he watched Sakuragi dribble, sprinting full on across the court.

"Yes and we all have Rukawa-kun to thank for that." Ayako responded from somewhere behind Akagi, since he naturally dwarfed her in his shadow. Everybody dwarfed her in their shadow.

Didn't mean her voice didn't dwarf them right back.

"Good job Kogure." She patted him on the back. "And good job Rukawa. Now 'our' little seedling is growing into something promising." She patted the air in simulation of patting Rukawa.

Rukawa didn't understand exactly how it had become "our" little seed or weed or whatever it was.

**

* * *

**

**Saturday**

Is spent in confusion and basketball, so it ends up being confused basketball.

**

* * *

**

**Sunday **

Sleeps off the detrimental effects of playing a whole game of confused basketball.

Now that he thinks about it, Sakuragi is the only person in the world who can play that way and not become sick.


	4. Week 4

**Week 4**

**

* * *

****Monday**

They ran into each other by the water fountain and instead of Sakuragi demanding first go like he always does, he actually, strangely let him go first.

He even waited, like actually waited.

And the fountain hadn't been tricked or bobby-trapped.

And he drank as much as he wanted without Sakuragi's usual shouts of "hurry the hell up" or "are you a whale?" or "where is the sea in your stomach?" and all forms of impatient shouting.

It was…weird.

**

* * *

**

**Tuesday**

He dropped a book.

And Sakuragi had actually picked it up for him.

He was probably dying because there was no other reason for this kind of…

Was he sick?

He had to be sick.

"Here"

His face was all red. He probably had a fever. It probably had killed what was left of his brain cells.

He was probably half blind from the fever.

"You dropped your book."

"Have you lost your mind?"

* * *

**Wednesday**

Sakuragi opened the door for him.

Without slamming it in his face.

WTF.

* * *

**Thursday**

Sakuragi pulled a chair out for him.

Without him somehow landing on his rear at the end of the gesture.

OMGWTF.

* * *

**Friday**

He'd gotten into another fight with an oblivious group of upperclassmen. They were shouting and threatening him and he was going to wipe the floor with every last one of them. But instead of things going down like he had planned, Sakuragi had suddenly jumped out of nowhere and was now currently wiping the floor with them.

And he was staring and wondering what the hell Sakuragi thought he was doing. It could be all those times Akagi had slammed his head into walls, and lockers, and floors, and...other people. Maybe the brain damage was accumulative and this was the result.

Sakuragi had shouted some derogatory words at them and for a second there, he had forgotten that originally this had been _his_ fight. But Sakuragi was just so annoying that it doesn't even matter who started it, because they all want to take his face apart by the end of it.

Sakuragi however, beats them all down like pancakes.

He then hops over all the groaning and bloody piles of worthlessness on the ground, as he wipes his hands on his pants and…fixes his shirt? Sakuragi stands in front of him and suddenly out of nowhere he asks him which class he's headed to.

Rukawa too stunned to stop himself answers automatically "HomeEc."

"Yosh!" Sakuragi says determinedly, and then he's marching ahead of him and turning the corner in the direction of his…Home Economics class?

**

* * *

**

**Saturday**

He sees Sakuragi using the outdoors basketball court where he usually practices on the weekends and turns his bicycle right back around because he is _not_ in the mood to be confused.

**

* * *

**

**Sunday**

He had eaten something weird and now he was sick with a mild case of food poisoning. He blames Sakuragi for this on account of **1)** He had been thinking about the redhead when it happened and **2)** The thought of Sakuragi's actions for the past week makes his head hurt.


	5. Week 5

**Week 5 ****

* * *

****Monday**

Rukawa finds out come Monday morning that he no longer has just _one_ class with Sakuragi, but that he has _all _six classes with the idiot.**

* * *

****Tuesday **

God, someone please shoot him.

**

* * *

****Wednesday **

Sakuragi gives him a granola bar. He has no idea why Sakuragi chose to give him a granola bar, but he just did, and it was during lunch period, saying "here" and just walking away and throwing back an "I don't want it."

He threw it against the wall to see if it would explode.

It fell back to the ground with a safe-sounding plop.

He opened it.

He sniffed it.

The seal looked real enough. Didn't look like it was tampered.

He ate it.

It was pretty good.

**

* * *

**

**Thursday**

"Is he sick?"

He was now overhearing a close by conversation carried out by Sakuragi's four thug friends.

The one with the mustache says, "Yeah, he seems different, like he's…"

"Distracted." Mito answers.

"He hasn't said anything about Haruko." The one with the bleached hair provides and they all nod along.

"Yeah, weird." The porky one adds.

"It almost seems like Sakuragi likes another girl." Mito says half-jokingly and then all of them get quiet.

"Oh man, he's cheating on Haruko." The guy with the bleached hair says.

"What a rotten scumbag." The porky one shakes his head in outright disapproval.

Rukawa wonders why everyone is so interested in Sakuragi's love life and then his brain provides the reasonable thought that these guys just don't have hobbies. Not everyone knows the joys of basketball, so he mustn't hold it against them for their ignorance, but that doesn't mean he has to like them, because since they're Sakuragi's friends, it's obvious they share in his stupidity.

"He's got himself a new girlfriend. I wonder if she's hotter than Haruko."

Tch. These guys were completely stupid and…who the hell was Haruko?

* * *

**Friday **

He comes early to the basketball court and finds Mitsui and Kogure practicing together.

Although…

Practicing doesn't seem to be quite the right word to use here, as practicing would consist of them looking at where they were _shooting the ball_ instead of looking at _each other_!

Mitsui misses a couple of baskets, which knowing the compulsive jackass, you would think he'd be convulsing on the floor in pathetic anger and feelings of unworthiness right about now.

However that isn't the case, as he just keeps on missing more baskets, but doesn't seem to care at all, not when Kogure smiles at him and touches his hand instead of making a grab for the ball.

Rukawa has to wonder what the _hell_ these two are doing if they aren't playing a practice game of basketball.

Seriously.

He's confused, because if you have a basketball in your hand, the only logical thing to do is to get it in the hoop, and to score more points than your opponent and to win --and if you happen to look really cool while doing it, well that's just how some things work out--but that didn't seem to be the goal that these two were setting out for.

This didn't feel like practice at all, and Rukawa, for all his denseness felt suddenly like he was intruding on something that he really shouldn't be.

Kogure laughed and propelled himself forward like he was trying to steal the ball, except he hadn't stolen anything but the breath from Mitsui, as both of them were knocked off balance and landed on the floor together with Kogure practically straddling Mitsui and Mitsui grinning like an idiot.

"Ahem." He made his presence known before he was scarred for life, because he was finally,_ finally_ starting to get what the fuck was going on between these two.

"Oh Rukawa-kun, I didn't see you there." Kogure, the happy bastard called to him and Mitsui was turning two shades of red, and rolling off the floor and helping Kogure up.

They were staring at each other again, and if Rukawa wasn't so uncomfortable, he would have told them to stop making googly eyes at each other and to get off the damn court and give him the ball—wiped first—and let him practice, because if they weren't going to use the court properly, then they shouldn't have any problems with him going right on ahead and making himself comfortable.

**

* * *

**

**Saturday **

He was practicing his free throws at the outside basketball court when he spotted something red in his periphery.

Something red and tall.

But when he looked it wasn't there anymore.

He went back to practicing, but the entire time he could feel eyes on him.

It didn't affect his game, as nothing could do that, but it still sort of…bothered him.

Maybe, somebody else wanted to use the court.

Hmmph. They'd just have to wait until he was done.

He'd worked up a good sweat fifteen minutes into his practice and he didn't know if it was the way the early morning sun was shinning, or that thing that happened at the corner of your eyes, but he could swear that red and tall something was back again.

Although when he looked it wasn't there anymore.

This was going to annoy him.

He turned around and he could see it again.

What the hell was that?

Was his eyesight getting bad?

He'd always been blessed with great eyesight; maybe it was catching up with him.

Maybe he'd have to go get a checkup soon.

And throughout all of this, he could still see that red and--what the hell was that?

He made it look like he was going to shoot the ball, but suddenly he turned around, intent on finding out what that thing was.

However, he was only faced with nothing but air and the empty half of the court.

He turned back around and sighed, thinking that maybe Kogure had had a point when he'd said he was too tense. Maybe if he took a water break and-

_THUMP! _

That thump wasn't just any thump, as Rukawa brought a hand up and passed it over the area that the mysterious flying basketball had just collided into, effectively denting his head!

He turned around and saw Sakuragi with a smirk and he almost felt nostalgic for a moment, before it was violently beat down with the unending rage that he felt right now.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, his hand still cupping the back of his head.

"Ain't it obvious." Sakuragi answered smugly, and Rukawa for another second there felt relief, because this was strangely something that he could expect from Sakuragi. It was like the past weeks' weirdness had finally come to an end.

"Get off, I'm using the court." He said, and turned back to play his practice game.

"You get off. This is _my_ court." Sakuragi said and pointed at himself.

"I'm not getting off this court." He said finally, already zoning out into practice mode.

"Well then I'm not either!" Sakuragi shot back.

Well it wasn't like he was going to be playing full court. So whatever.

They could play on the same court.

They were on the same team. It didn't matter.

Except after that, for some weird reason, he kept missing free throws.

Oh no.

**

* * *

**

**Sunday**

The panic hadn't caught up to him yet.

He was waiting for it though, because if Kogure and Mitsui's stupidity was contagious, then he was obviously infected.

Yesterday, he couldn't pull off one decent free throw, because his attention had not been entirely on his side of the court. He noticed that Sakuragi had improved tremendously in the three months that he started to play. It was almost sickening and he had felt a pang of jealousy for a stupid second. He wasn't supposed to feel jealous.

That was…

Stupid.

So Sakuragi had some talent, _some_ was the key word here.

While he had…a lot of talent, _a lot_ being the key word on this side of the fence.

He shouldn't be bogged down by something so trifle.

There was nothing to worry about.

Except, he was coming back to that weird thought of 'who the hell was Haruko?'


	6. Week 6

**Week 6****

* * *

****Monday**

Who knew changing in the locker room would be so stressful.

Rukawa wasn't bashful--didn't have a bashful bone in his body. Didn't understand what he had to be bashful about.

Now, he wasn't so sure about that. Not when Sakuragi was staring at him like he had a second head.

Thankfully he had his back to him.

He wasn't wearing a shirt.

He thought maybe he should amend that quickly.

Stop staring at me. He was tempted to say.

But then that would call attention to him with a locker room full of teammates that had changed and showered in front of each other on a daily basis for about half a year.

It was still rightly freaking him out, because Sakuragi's stare wasn't letting up.

Did he have something on his back?

Did Sakuragi stick something on his back?

A note, a piece of gum…

God, what was back there that was so interesting?

He grabbed his shirt and roughly pulled it on, and somehow ended up putting it on backwards, which had earned him a look from Miyagi and a chuckle from Kogure.

Tch. He could careless. All he wanted to do was get out of here, and grabbing his duffle bag, he shoved his dirty clothes in and slammed his locker shut.

When he passed Sakuragi, the boy was staring at his arm and distractedly picking at a scab while in the process completely ignoring him, like Sakuragi hadn't just been staring him down like he'd stolen something from the idiot.**

* * *

****Tuesday**

Practice was another weird situation after another, as Sakuragi had made it his personal vendetta of sticking to him throughout the whole game.

After a while Akagi had given up on telling Sakuragi to go guard other people, which Rukawa thought was unusual, since their captain always made it a point to follow orders. Akagi stressed the importants of following orders and cooperation within the team.

But apparently not today.

Akagi didn't even say anything when Sakuragi blatantly fouled him by checking him with his shoulder, even going so far as stepping on his foot and reaching a hand a little too closely to his stomach to call accidental.

Was Sakuragi trying to psyche him out?

Well, whatever it was, he wasn't going to just stand here and let Sakuragi try to control the rhythm of the game.

He stole the ball from Sakuragi. He might have improved, but he was still sloppy with guarding himself and Rukawa was all to ready to exploit that weakness. However, he hadn't expected for Sakuragi to tackle him into the floor, the heavier player landing most of his weight on him and knocking the breath right out of him.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU MORON!" He heard Akagi scream while simultaneously kicking Sakuragi into a roll and off of him. "THIS IS NOT RUGBY!"**

* * *

****Wednesday**

Even though Sakuragi sometimes forget himself and fouled people like it was going out of style, it still didn't explain how he had horribly reverted back to a foul a minute. The difference though was that this time, he was only fouling one person.

He was that unlucky person.

Akagi had asked him during a water-break to please bear with it, since Sakuragi was making progress with his jump shots and taking him out of the game might upset that.

Rukawa still didn't understand how their captain had such a change of heart over just sitting the idiot out like he always did.

If he did care--which he didn't--he would have told his senior he was starting to sound dangerously like he was picking favorites. Rukawa wasn't bothered by this notion, as he had guessed some months ago that Akagi respected the idiot. Their captain somewhat spoiled him in his own way, as did everybody else for that matter.

He didn't really care either way, since he was obviously the better basketball player and Sakuragi just needed more guidance…

And somewhere in the middle of his tangent, he had somehow completely lost whatever point it was he had been trying to make…**

* * *

****Thursday**

Sakuragi was behind him.

His sneakers screeching against the waxed floor, as the redhead shifted his weight from his right and left foot and cut him off from escaping around his outstretched arms.

Sakuragi was breathing on his neck.

Rukawa made a feint to the left, but surprisingly Sakuragi hadn't fallen for it with his usual gung-ho gullibility. He was actually sticking his ground and doing a pretty good job of blocking him.

He was really persistent today.

Rukawa feinted twice, but he wasn't able to shake off Sakuragi and it didn't look like he could escape the five-second rule either.

However, before the whistle could blow, Sakuragi had stepped in closer, his chest slightly pressing into his back.

Sakuragi's breath was coming quicker.

The whistle blew.

* * *

**Friday**

"Get him to stick to somebody else." He asked Akagi, while Ayako, Kogure and Mitsui looked on from their seats on the bench.

"Look, he's good at guarding you and I think he's improving because of it." Akagi said prosaically.

Kogure agreed and looked to his gangbanger boyfriend for support.

Mitsui nodded obediently.

Sellout.

"What's this really about?" Akagi asked.

Kogure coughed in his palm and suspiciously it had sounded like a laugh.

Mitsui was "innocently" looking around them, and Rukawa didn't know how the once-leader-of-a-gang pulled it off with that mug of his. Thug or no thug, he was still a mean looking bastard.

Rukawa answered, as seriously as he could, which was pretty serious, "Get him off my ass."

For some reason, Kogure was coughing some more, all of the coughs sounding suspiciously like choked laughter and Mitsui, scared that his daffodil of a boytoy would do them all a favor and choke to death, patted him on the back.

Ayako interjected at that moment, her lips pursed as she considered his request. Thank god there was someone reasonable in the room.

"You guys are just too funny." She said, and her hands were up to her face, her cheeks red from holding back…laughter?

What the hell was so funny?

Akagi seemed to be in the same boat as him, as he stared at Ayako and Kogure, who were fidgeting around in their seats on the bench, their faces squeezed together in similar expressions of painful suppression.

Damn if Ayako wasn't a girl and Kogure wasn't such a girl, he would have hit them both.

"Look, just deal with it. I don't see why you're complaining. You've never complained before."

That was true. But he'd never had to put up with shit like this. Sure Sakuragi was a flaming asshole to him come everyday of the week, but that had never interfered with his game. It was frustrating to be more focused on Sakuragi's position on the court than his own. He was just too hyper aware of Sakuragi and it was hurting him out on the court.

"Well don't blame me when something happens," he said and Akagi had waved him off like his threat didn't mean anything.

**

* * *

****Saturday**

He went to the outdoors basketball court and it was about two minutes in his practice game that Sakuragi had showed up.

They played on separate sides of the court.

They said nothing to each other.

Until Sakuragi's ball had rolled over on his side. He had chucked it over to him and Sakuragi had caught it easily enough, but after some minutes, Sakuragi was still standing there.

Like he was waiting for something.

Rukawa for all the blaring red lights going off in his head that said to ignore the lumbering moron still cocked his head at him and lifted an eyebrow in question. He thought he would feel too stupid asking out loud what the hell Sakuragi's problem was, so this gesture seemed to suffice.

"I was…um wondering…"

Why you're an idiot. He was about to finish, but kept his tongue in cheek.

"If you…" Sakuragi mumbled something under his breath that suspiciously sounded like fox. Rukawa narrowed his eyes, or narrowed them more than they were, and thought that Sakuragi wasn't helping his cause. Sakuragi scratched behind his neck and opened his mouth, "My defense…is…"

God spit it out, Rukawa thought and was getting impatient. He wanted to return to his game.

"I want you to help me with my defense," Sakuragi said in one breath. Rukawa could have chosen to be shocked at that moment by the fact that Sakuragi was asking for his help on his own, instead of someone having to yell him into doing it, but no, it wasn't shock.

It was more agitation, because that wasn't the way you asked people to help you.

"I want." He repeated so Sakuragi could hear that he didn't like the way he'd phrased his words.

"C'mon." Sakuragi made an impatient motion and Rukawa thought that teaching Sakuragi the meaning of the words "please" and "thank you" should come first before defense. Although that made him sound like a hypocrite since he didn't really know the meaning of those words either.

Whatever.

"Fine." He said, and Sakuragi was walking over to his side of the court.

**

* * *

****Sunday**

They'd met at the outdoor basketball court again, as both seemed to work on the same schedule since they were both morning players.

From yesterday's practice game, Rukawa had found out more about Sakuragi's style of play than he had during school practice. Sakuragi had a weird way of spontaneous dribbling. Had a weird stopping and starting motion that made his opponents probably dizzy from the constant changes in his game. It surely wasn't something that was easy to play against and formulate a plan of attack, as Sakuragi's bursts of energy seemed limitless.

Plainly put, the fucker had a lot of energy.

Rukawa could boast of an equal amount of stamina and willpower, as that was what it came down to most of the time, but Sakuragi was a horse.

He had good breathing technique, which was probably due to him being punched in the stomach for most of his life. He dribbled, but his dribbling wasn't light like Rukawa's. It hit the ground with a solid impact and Rukawa didn't think it would be pleasant to be nailed in the toe with something like that. Sakuragi was an aggressive player. Everything he did aggressively, from dribbling to passing, to getting the ball when it went out of rebounds. He just dove into everything like an idiot, which made sense…because he was. Sakuragi was a power forward. He was a small forward. They had very different ways of playing the game, but it all seemed to balance itself out when he played offense and Sakuragi played defense, Sakuragi's unending driving tactics to his cool, sweeping ones.

Sakuragi didn't have footwork down, but Rukawa did and he was running circles around the other. However, Sakuragi did have speed as he chased after him and tried to keep him from sinking baskets.

Today's game wasn't a teaching game. There was no set defender and offender. Rukawa had always been interested in seeing how he matched up one on one with Sakuragi. Although he would never say this out loud, he was still curious. He knew he was better, more skillful, but Sakuragi was relentless and he was using intimidation techniques on him throughout the game. Like he was going to fall for that.

He was just as tall as Sakuragi, maybe one or two inches under without his shoes, but still, the idiot was hoarding over him.

He ended up beating Sakuragi by a large margin, not surprising, and it was good to impose his skill over the other and yet, he felt horrendously tired.

He tried to not let it show on his face.

Sakuragi was breathing and cursing. Yet Sakuragi was focused more on cursing, while Rukawa just wanted more air to get to his lungs.

Rukawa realized that practicing with someone like Sakuragi was a much better method of training than practicing alone.

He made a note of that.


	7. Week 7

**Week 7**

* * *

**Monday **

Coach Anzai was putting them up in a hotel for the night and everyone was ready to fall into their futon, the exhaustive traveling draining their last strength and transforming them into liquid blobs of laziness.

Sakuragi was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"Man, I wish I were rooming with Ayako." Miyagi said mournfully as he sighed and scratched at the door like a puppy.

"Shut up. It's too expensive to book too many rooms, so either put up and shut up or shut up and get out." Akagi said without remorse, as he sat down on the futon next to the wall.

"Akagi's just tired." Kogure explained as he patted the still mourning boy on the shoulder in an attempt to placate his teenage heart--more like teenage hormones-- the ones that yearned to sleep in the same room as Ayako.

Kogure took the only bed in the room and ruffled the covers. Mitsui, walking out of the bathroom, hair wet and towel around his shoulders watched transfixed as Kogure patted down the sheets, the small forward slightly bent over the bed.

Mitsui walked up to Kogure and smiled, more than ready to hop into the same bed.

"You're sleeping on the floor Mitsui." Akagi cut in all knowingly, his back turned to them, but somehow still able to tell what was happening on the other side of the room.

"Eh…" Mitsui's excited face fell like a deflated tire and Kogure could only pat him on the shoulder and try to placate his heart--definitely his teenage hormones--and send the boy off to the unknown recesses of the floor.

Mitsui flopped down grumpily on the futon next to Akagi and Miyagi after he was done scratching at the door, came over to the futon sandwiched between Mitsui and Sakuragi. The red head already out cold and snoring like a freight train.

Rukawa who had been sitting off in a corner and listening to his CD player didn't enjoy the fact that the one remaining futon was on the other side of Sakuragi. He knew they had a game tomorrow, and that he needed a full night's sleep--even more than the others considering this was him--to properly function.

"Go to sleep." Akagi said, again all knowingly from his place on his futon, his back turned to him, but somehow still able to tell that he didn't want to go anywhere near his futon, not with Sakuragi so close.

"Rukawa." Akagi said with a note of finality, his back still turned to him and Rukawa knew that he could fuss, but it wasn't going to get him anywhere. He came over to his futon and sat down wearily, the sounds of Sakuragi's loud breathing filtering through the dark room and the moonlight streaking over the sleeping bodies of his teammates.

He lay back on the futon and couldn't help but check to his right, noticing how close Sakuragi was and how even in sleep, he still annoyed the shit out of him.

Well one thing Rukawa could say about Sakuragi. He was a genius at annoying people.

Well at least he was a genius at _something_.

Rukawa closed his eyes and the sounds of Sakuragi's breathing just got louder.

Shut up. He wanted to say, but he knew the others were trying to get some sleep.

He squeezed his eyes shut and thought that if he just did this, then sleep would catch up to him. Unfortunately what caught him first was Sakuragi's left arm. Sakuragi's heavy left arm.

It hit him right in the stomach and he sat up from the unexpected contact.

He looked down at the idiot and Sakuragi was still snoring away, unaware that his left arm had made itself a new home. Rukawa was about to correct this problem, but suddenly Sakuragi rolled, his head now on his stomach.

Rukawa could only stare on in unmitigated horror as Sakuragi without a beat burrowed into his chest, the snoring only growing louder as the idiot sunk deeper and deeper into sleep.

Rukawa taking a deep breath pushed him off of him--the fucker was heavy--and Sakuragi with the momentum landed on Miyagi.

Miyagi snorted awake. "Huh? What…?"

By that time, Rukawa was making himself comfortable in his futon, as Miyagi still confused as to why Sakuragi was practically sprawled on top of him, elbowed the larger basketball player in his side. "Sakuragi, get off me. God you sleep worse than a bear."

Sakuragi rolled back on his own when an elbow was lodged into his ribs and Rukawa was dealt the unfortunate fate of having a 183 pound power forward roll right on top of him, the bastard actually tucking his face into his neck like some ridiculous child and going back to sleep. Rukawa thought this would be a good time for hell to open up from under the floorboards and finally swallow him up.

"Sakuragi." He gritted out the name and prayed that the moron wasn't so paralyzed with sleep that he wouldn't roll off of him. "Idiot, wake up." He gritted and it was all hardly a whisper, as he didn't want the others seeing him in such condition. "I will murder you in your sleep."

Sakuragi snorted and grumbled something that suspiciously sounded like "just try it" before nodding back off again.

Rukawa pushed at the shoulder edging into his arm and Sakuragi made a loud whining noise before flopping around and shoving a knee a little too close to Rukawa's _penalty zone. _

Rukawa went as still as a shadow, his body going tense and his eyes widening in the unending darkness that surrounded them.

What the hell was Sakuragi doing!

Rukawa tried to squirm away and for all his attempts, Sakuragi pressed him down harder into the mattress.

* * *

**Tuesday **

They won their basketball game.

Rukawa made it a point to avoid Sakuragi, even when the idiot had done some especially idiotic things during the match. It had taken _a lot_ of self-control on Rukawa's part to ignore said idiotic things and not comment on them, like he really wanted to.

* * *

**Wednesday**

Sakuragi had come to yell at him for some reason or another, but instead of doing the smart, easy thing and yelling back, he had ran in the other direction, like his ass was on fire. Ran, not walked.

When Miyagi saw him running, he had shouted after him that those tacos from the cafeteria hadn't agreed with his stomach either.

* * *

**Thursday **

It was unquestionable.

He had a serious phobia of Sakuragi.

Ever since _that_ awful night, he couldn't stop himself from running away from the idiot, the reason a strange case of embarrassment on his part.

He thought he was overreacting.

That Sakuragi had _no_ idea that he'd completely felt him up under his night clothes when the fucker had rolled on top of him, successfully keeping him up for the rest of the night in a half conscious, agitated state of horror and strangely warm…

Ew! Ew! Ew!

* * *

**Friday **

He hated Sakuragi.

He hated him so much that he had resorted to taking Sakuragi's water bottle and chucking it out the open window of their locker room.

When Sakuragi realized what he'd done and the rest of the team had realized what he'd done, he felt strangely discombobulated.

He thought that maybe today he should self reflect.

On Sakuragi's face.

So he goaded the idiot into fighting him and said idiot had lived up to his expectations.

* * *

**Saturday**

He was watching Sakuragi play a lonesome game of basketball on the outside court that they usually practiced on come weekends.

He actually, strangely wanted to join in, but his feet wouldn't let him.

Although, he didn't like just standing here, letting precious basketball playing practice time be wasted and so he made up his mind to do the smart, logical, completely natural thing and walked onto the basketball court. Because try as he might at ignoring Sakuragi, he couldn't just let it interfere with his game time. That was…just…unthinkable. So just for today, he wouldn't ignore Sakuragi. Yeah, just for today.

* * *

**Sunday **

He scored the winning point in their practice match and Sakuragi had stomped his feet and called him a cheater.

When Rukawa had gone for his water bottle, he had accidentally picked up the wrong one and chugged from Sakuragi's. On this discovery, he wiped his mouth clean, but when he realized he was still thirsty and that his water bottle was _all_ the way over on the other side of the court, he went ahead and drank from Sakuragi's anyway.


	8. Week 8

**Week 8**

* * *

**Monday **

"Give me the ball."

"No. This is my ball."

"Give it to me."

"I don't want to."

"This is a passing exercise. Give me the ball."

"You can't make me."

"I'll tell Akagi."

"Here's the stupid ball." Sakuragi throws said stupid ball at him and he catches it, but the force of the overhead throw makes him take a step back.

Sakuragi grins.

He doesn't like how Sakuragi grins, so he throws an overhead pass at the idiot and it comes to a halt in Sakuragi's palms.

Sakuragi grins some more. "You throw like a girl."

"You throw like a idiot."

"Girl."

"Idiot."

They stare at each other, until Rukawa gives up and says, "Look, this isn't an exercise in who can make whose palms redder. It's a passing drill."

"You still throw like a girl."

**

* * *

**

**Tuesday**

"What's up with Sakuragi? I thought you said he'd stop being a dumbass if I was fake nice." Rukawa questions Kogure.

"Oh that. Well it was only a temporary solution. You see, I believe Sakuragi's default personality when it concerns you is to be a…"

"Asshole."

"I guess you could say that. But you know, if you really want him to get off your back, you could um…"

"I could what?"

"Sakuragi's a teenage boy and like all teenage boys they're controlled by their hormones."

Rukawa stared blankly at Kogure. "So? What the hell does that have to do with me?"

Kogure sighs. "You're as dumb as rocks. You deserve each other."

"What?"

"Don't worry about those locks, Mitsui. I'll get Akagi to open them when he comes back from physics." Kogure suddenly shouts out of nowhere, and Mitsui who isn't anywhere near a door, and is in fact holding a basketball, scratches his head, shrugs his shoulders, and continues to work on his three pointer.

Kogure turns back to Rukawa with a nervous looking smile. "Just…hang in there." He says and Rukawa wants to tell him he's been hanging in there since Sakuragi joined the team.

**

* * *

****Wednesday**

He finds a simple envelop on his desk. When he asks who put it there, a group of guys by the window say it was from this really pretty girl.

Another gives him an exact name. "You know? Haruko, the one who's really into basketball. Akagi's sister."

Akagi had a sister?

Dear god, he couldn't even picture him having a brother…but a sister?

"You know who I'm talking about? Sakuragi's always hanging out with her."

Sakuragi did…

Hmm. Was he talking about that girl who came to cheer for Sakuragi.

"Does she have shoulder length brown hair?" Because he knew that much.

"Yeah, yeah. That's the one. Man, you hit it big if you got such a sweetie pie leaving you love letters."

Rukawa thought about this for a minute. She was always around Sakuragi, so why would she leave him a letter. He looked at Sakuragi's desk, which was right behind his—to his chagrin—and then he looked at his desk.

Maybe she got the desks mixed up. She was always hanging out with Sakuragi, so it must be addressed to him. And with his mind made up, Rukawa put the letter on Sakuragi's desk.

**

* * *

****Thursday**

"Hey…um…you got a second?" Sakuragi was now shuffling his feet and looking down at the ground.

"Why?"

"Can we…ah talk?"

"No."

"C'mon. It'll only take a sec." Sakuragi said, already moving towards the locker room.

Rukawa followed him.

When they'd reached the locker room. Sakuragi had locked the door behind them.

Rukawa already didn't like where this was going. If Sakuragi was planning to fight him here, then he'd have no choice but to fight back. Coach Anzai's promise be damned.

"So um…" Sakuragi scratched behind his head and pulled out the plain envelop that Rukawa had dumped on his desk yesterday.

"Did you put this on my desk?"

Rukawa shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah." He didn't say it was from Haruko, as he thought that would be apparent from the letter.

"Why?" Sakuragi asked, and Rukawa thought he was acting funnier than usual.

"Because it's yours." Rukawa answered back. He felt like he was missing something.

"Oh. Okay." Sakuragi said, and he was scratching the side of his cheek. "So this is mine."

"Yeah." Rukawa didn't know how else to say it.

"Okay." Sakuragi said again.

They stared at each other.

"Yeah, okay." Rukawa rolled his eyes and was preparing to turn around when Sakuragi suddenly closed the distance between them in one long stride.

"What the hel-"

However before he could ask the dimwit what he was doing, Sakuragi had leaned over and kissed him. On the mouth. In the locker room. On the mouth. In the middle of the locker room.

**

* * *

****Still Thursday (Five minutes later)**

After Sakuragi had taken his tongue out of his mouth and stopped kissing him, he took one step away from a dazed Rukawa and said. "Okay then." Then he left.

Rukawa stayed in the locker room after that, until Kogure, curious as to why they were missing one member of their team, walked in to come get him.

He turned to his sempai when asked what was wrong, and then told Kogure that he was going home for the day.

**

* * *

****Friday**

He didn't go to school.

**

* * *

****Saturday **

He didn't go practice on the outdoor basketball court.

**

* * *

****Sunday **

He still didn't go practice on the outdoor basketball court and stayed in bed.


	9. Week 9

**Week 9**

* * *

**Monday **

He thought about what Haruko's letter had to say, if it had gotten that kind of reaction out of Sakuragi. Maybe she dumped him and he was being an idiot. Maybe this was some kind of prank. It could be a prank.

He wouldn't put it past Sakuragi to play a prank like this. Sakuragi had hit him in the ass with a basketball once. This could be the same thing.

Except less painful and more…

Gross. That's what it was. Gross.

Gross like…Sakuragi.

Bleh.

* * *

**Tuesday **

When he went to the boy's bathroom, Sakuragi followed him right inside.

"What do you want?"

"To take a piss." Sakuragi said and started unzipping his pants.

Rukawa walked right out.

Sakuragi followed after him a second later. "Hey what's your problem?"

Rukawa made a disgruntled sound and his face went somewhat red when he realized that Sakuragi hadn't zipped up his pants all the way.

"Fix your pants." Rukawa commented and walked past him again.

"What-oh-opps!"

* * *

**Wednesday **

"Did I not do it right?" Sakuragi asked, cornering him in the empty classroom that had been filled to capacity moments ago.

"Yes, your three-pointer needs work." Rukawa told him, as he put the books that he barely used in his duffle back. Better than carrying them.

"My…is that some kind of slang or somethin'?" Sakuragi asked and he was much closer to him than usual.

Rukawa hefted his duffle on his shoulder and tried to step around Sakuragi, but the idiot stepped right in front of him. Rukawa stepped to Sakuragi's left in an attempt to get around him, but the other boy stepped in front of him again. Rukawa stepped to his right and Sakuragi blocked him again.

"Get out of my way."

"Man, what's up with you?" Sakuragi said, looking perplexed.

"You're in my way." Rukawa replied, but was surprised when Sakuragi's hands closed on his shoulders.

"I thought you said…the letter--what the hell do you want me to do?"

"First I want you to get out of my way, then I want you to go to hel-"

Sakuragi hadn't let him finish his sentence as the redhead leaned forward and kissed him. Rukawa felt hands tighten around his shoulders. He walked backwards, his own hands pushing at Sakuragi's chest, as the bastard wouldn't stop sucking on his face.

He managed to push Sakuragi's face away from him, but then his legs connected with something. He heard the screech of a desk, the legs scrapping against the floor as his body was pushed onto the flat surface of the table. He elbowed Sakuragi in the ribs and the asshole elbowed him right back. Sakuragi reconnected their mouths and Rukawa feeling the metal of the desk press up into his back squirmed and pulled Sakuragi's hair.

Sakuragi put his hands on his hips to try and steady him, but Rukawa kicked his long legs out and hit Sakuragi in the shin. Sakuragi accidentally bit him on the bottom lip because of that bit of maneuvering, the redhead pressing steadily into him until he could feel Sakuragi's erection nudging him in the thigh.

He opened his lips to get more air in, but with Sakuragi's mouth latched onto his, all Rukawa ended up doing was sharing the same breath with him.

"Uhhhnggg…"

Sakuragi seemed to take the noises he was making as encouragement and without further ado Sakuragi slipped his big palms under the hem of his T-shirt. He squeezed him around the sides, and then pressed down on top of him as hard as he could, his lower body now rubbing against him in tandem with his hands.

Rukawa felt his knees shaking and one of them out of reflex jumped and swiftly connected with Sakuragi's stomach.

* * *

**Thursday **

After he had successfully--involuntarily if he was being truthful--kneed Sakuragi in the stomach yesterday, he'd grabbed his duffle bag and left the moron doubled over in the classroom.

When practice had started, Sakuragi had fouled Rukawa so many times that Akagi kicked the redhead out of the gym. Not off the basketball court, out of the gym. Outside, where the birds were chirping and the sky was blue. Everybody thought that it had to be bad if Sakuragi wasn't even allowed to stay inside.

* * *

**Friday **

"You kneed me in the stomach."

"I'll knee you in something else if you come near me."

"Die Rukawa!" Sakuragi started throwing paper balls at him and Rukawa felt like instead of progressing they were regressing.

He in turn threw rocks at Sakuragi's head. Sharp ones.

**

* * *

**

**Saturday**

Instead of playing a practice game of basketball Sakuragi had pushed him up against the chain fence and latched onto his neck.

Rukawa had stomped on his foot, but when he realized that for some reason violence seemed to get Sakuragi off--he'd have to be a masochist if he'd put down on his extra-curricular activities next to basketball, street fighting--he stopped all forms of combat.

But then he didn't know exactly what to do if he couldn't deck the moron, so what he did end up doing was letting Sakuragi drive him further into the wire fence, which he was sure was going to leave fence patterns on his back. From this distance, Sakuragi smelled like deodorant and that new sneakers smell. It wasn't something that he was estranged with and so it didn't freak him out as much—as it should have—when his nose snatched the smell. From this distance, he could also feel Sakuragi's hair. It was coarse and scratched against his cheek, as he wore his hair in that half pompadour thing that gang members were notorious for. It could be gel that made his hair so stiff, but Rukawa was more of the opinion that Sakuragi—since he was so impatient—didn't seem like the type that would spend about two hours on his hair. And his roots which should have been different-colored if his hair was indeed a dye job like everybody suspected—was actually the same color up close like this. This was that freak's natural hair color. Well it only made sense that he had freaky hair, on account of his very weird, very freaky personality. Made complete sense.

Sakuragi moved up his throat and Rukawa bit back the curse and the…something else that he was about to voice. It wasn't a moan god dammit. He just wanted to let everyone know that.

After Sakuragi had spit on his neck enough, Rukawa had demanded a practice game. Sakuragi had demanded a reward system in which, if the great Sakuragi, fighter of justice and prevailer over evil beat the not-so-great Rukawa, dumbass pretty boy of evil and henchmen of Gori then dumbass-Rukawa would have to give him…_something._

"Like a fist." Rukawa had answered on reflex.

"Then I'll give you a knuckle sandwich, complements of great chef Hanamichi," Sakuragi also blurted out on reflex.

"So you want me to punch you?" Rukawa asked again, and he thought he would have no problem with that, so long as he could punch him a second time and maybe a third.

"You hit me I hit back. I don't want a punch to the face."

"Then you want me to kick you." Because if Sakuragi didn't want a punch to the face, then the obvious answer would be that he wanted a kick…to the face.

Sakuragi looked at him like he was stupid, and there was something terribly wrong and hypocritical if Hanamichi Sakuragi was giving another human being this look.

Why hadn't the ground frozen over yet?

"Look," Sakuragi began and then his face turned beet red. It was probably that his stupidity had finally began to cut off the air supply to his brain and that in about two seconds, Rukawa had to look forward to Sakuragi passing out and also getting to kick him in the face when he did.

Two in one.

"Just…" Sakuragi looked around and then stepped up to him. He looked around again and Rukawa wanted to ask him 'Paranoid much?'

Sakuragi then leaned forward and whispered something in his ear, something that should never, ever be whispered to another human being with a smidgen of dignity.

He made sure to beat Sakuragi by a wider margin than usual, but it had been tough, because for some reason Sakuragi had been especially motivated, so on top of his already freakish stamina abilities, Rukawa had to put up with his sudden unnatural drive. Rukawa didn't need ESP to know that he was going to be sore tomorrow.

* * *

**Sunday **

In today's practice match, Sakuragi had given him the same premise as before, and he thought something was really wrong with Sakuragi if he could say what he'd just said to him with a straight face and just expected him to do that…

Sakuragi seemed to really want it.

And Rukawa was sure he wasn't going to get it…from him.

When he told Sakuragi what he thought, the other boy got indignant and started shouting something about him being cowardly, and you're a big scardy cat, and you suck a lot…but that last part sounded suspiciously like the premise, so Sakuragi had turned red and told him to go to hell, but at the same time, play the damn basketball game.

He'd won, but oddly, he hadn't won by a large margin.

It was frighteningly enough decided by one point.

Rukawa thanked his family's ancestral gods for that one point.


	10. Week 10

**Week 10**

* * *

**Monday **

"What's that on your neck?" Kogure asked knowingly, as he changed for basketball practice.

"I ran into a fist." That was the lamest excuse he'd ever heard, but Rukawa wasn't too hard on himself, as he didn't have any experience with coming up with excuses. Usually he just said whatever was on his mind and that would be good enough. However, things weren't working out like he expected them to these days.

"You ran into a…?" Kogure shook his head and laughed. "Had to be a huge fist. Did the _fist _belong to Sakuragi?"

**

* * *

**

**Tuesday**

"You stupid pretty boy." Sakuragi had growled at him.

"You idiotic, ugly bastard." Rukawa had chosen not to growl back, because then he would have opened himself up to ridicule concerning a certain animal.

"I hate you!"

"I've always hated you"

"Then why'd you kiss me?"

"Because you kissed me first."

"I hope you sprain your ankle before tomorrow's game."

"I also equally express my hopes that something horrific happens to you before tomorrow's game."

"You threatenin' me?"

"If that's what you want to call it."

"I'm gonna beat the livin' shit out of you." Sakuragi warned, but his own menacing declarations didn't seem to have the effect they once had, not when he came up to Rukawa and kissed him on the mouth right after.

* * *

**Wednesday**

This was really weird. Rukawa thought, as he reflected back on the last some weeks and what he'd done during those weeks.

They'd just won another match, which had them that much closer to the finals. It was enough to put a skip in his step--but not really, since he didn't consider himself the skipping type…maybe Kogure could take over there. He was satisfied with their overall performance and everything seemed perfect.

He heard Sakuragi still grumbling over by the referee on how he'd completely jipped him with those foul points.

"I had a good reason for hitting that guy." Sakuragi told Akagi, and Rukawa thought it wasn't a good idea to actually admit to the team captain that you hit a guy on purpose.

"Why, did he look at you funny?" Akagi said, rolling his eyes and calling over Ayako to relieve him of idiot duty.

"Well…not me exactly." Sakuragi sounded strangely unsure of himself, and then he glanced over at Rukawa and went red in the face.

Rukawa began to put two and two together. It should have pissed him off that Sakuragi was picking fights on his behalf, but for some reason, he wasn't angered. Just…weird.

"Fox-face doesn't have an intimidating aura like me, so people probably beat him up _all _the time." Sakuragi yelled so everyone in the vicinity could hear him, and Rukawa instantly forgot about the not being angry and turned his glare on the redhead.

Sakuragi backtracked. "Look at his face." Sakuragi pointed at him, like no one knew who Rukawa was. "He always looks sleepy and-and he's as pale as a ghost. His skin's kinda soft too-er not that I know. But it looks soft and it probably feels really good to punch a face like that--with soft skin."

Sakuragi excused himself.

Akagi, scratching his head at a conversation that should have had him decking the boy two-ways-to-Sunday at the end of it, felt completely thrown off that he hadn't been able to direct any of his stress at the red-head.

* * *

**Thursday**

Rukawa taking a jump shot from behind the three point line, the ball curved in a beautiful arc before touching down in the basket and swishing through like silk.

Sakuragi had to admit it was a thing of beauty.

"Hey, gimme some pointers." Sakuragi asked, when Rukawa had come down from his three-pointer, feet touching down on the ground and hair still moving.

"You're a power forward, so it's not necessary for you to master the 3-pointer. You should just leave that to the rest of us." Rukawa walked over to him and gave him the ball. "You're job is to stick to the low post and guard that area."

"Low post?" Sakuragi asked, and scratched his head, because Akagi hadn't worded it that way.

"Your territory emcompasses the entire six feet from the basket. That's the area you control. That's why Akagi designated you for rebounds." Rukawa walked back to the three point line. "This entire court is my territory, since I'm a small forward."

"So you're there." Sakuragi pointed at him, "And I'm here." Sakuragi pointed to himself.

"You could look at it that way."

"Well can't you come a little closer since you get to go wherever the hell you want." Sakuragi threw after him. Rukawa frowned and rolled his eyes. "Every small forward has a different playing style, some are straight shooters and others are "bang inside" offensive players."

"Bang inside?" Sakuragi didn't know what it was about this, but he definitely liked the sound of it.

"Stop whatever it is your thinking about." Rukawa said as he circumvented the foul line. "Your goofy face is giving you away."

"You brought it up!" Sakuragi yelled, still sticking inside his territory as Rukawa followed the three point line around him.

"Bang inside means going straight for basket, not shying away from physical contact--"

"And you call me the perv."

"Ahem." Rukawa continued undaunted by Sakuragi's idiocy. "Where the small forward forces himself inside and does post up plays, like slam dunks or lay-ups." Rukawa stopped in front of Sakuragi, right out on the reach on the free throw line.

"Good for you." Sakuragi snipped. "But power forwards are still cooler. They control the rebound and that decides the game."

"Three pointers can decide a close game."

"Slam dunks are cooler."

"Free throws make for a more dramatic finish." Rukawa argued, and couldn't believe he was arguing about such a thing. "Like right when the buzzer calls and someone shoots a three pointer. It's called buzzer beaters and it can keep the crowd on their feet."

"Fine, then hurry up and teach me." Sakuragi whined and stomped over to the three point line. He held the ball underhand and his back was hunched over like he was trying to intimidate it.

"It's a three pointer, not a granny shot." Rukawa said, and he chuckled to himself because Sakuragi was a dumbass. "Straighten your back. You're posture's really bad." Rukawa placed his hand on the small of Sakuragi's back and pressed so Sakuragi would stop slouching. "Now when you shoot don't force it." Rukawa simulated shooting off, his hands holding the imaginary ball in the air, before he jumped up and took the shot. "It takes power both in the arms and legs, but since you have overabundance in both those areas," you oaf, Rukawa wanted to say, "You might overshoot. It'll hit the backboard and bounce off. We lose the ball." Rukawa said in his deadpan voice. "So get open, don't try to shoot a three pointer over anyone, just pass it."

"I thought you were teaching me how to shoot a three pointer?" Sakuragi grumbled.

"I'm teaching you how not to embarrass yourself when shooting a three pointer." Rukawa grumbled back.

"Bitch." Sakuragi mumbled.

"What did you ju-"

"So, what do I do next?" Sakuragi said, cutting him off without even blinking.

Rukawa collecting himself, continued on. "After you assess the situation and you're sure, line up the shot, focus on the alignment of the ball and the basket and then release."

"Okay, okay." Sakuragi said and forgot to do _every, single thing_ that Rukawa had just told him to do. The ball bounced off the backboard and rolled off to the sidelines.

"You're a moron." Rukawa commented as he watched the ball roll away from Sakuragi, like it was indeed trying to get away from this hopeless idiot.

* * *

**Friday**

"I've got this three pointer thing in the bag." Sakuragi bragged. "Haruko-channnn!" Sakuragi called when he saw the girl in the hallway. He waved the brunette over. "Hey guess what I learned?" he told her and his face lit up like a kid in a candy store. Rukawa tried to escape when Sakuragi wasn't looking, but the other boy asked him 'where're you going, you stupid fox?' right when he started to inch away.

"Oh what did you learn?" Haruko asked, her eyes lighting up just like the idiot to the side of him. It wasn't hard to tell how much a basketball fanatic this girl was.

"I learned how to do three-pointers." Sakuragi told her proudly and puffed out his chest. "I'm getting greater and greater by the day. Bow plebians!" Sakuragi shouted suddenly to a passing crowd of boys who had nothing to do with his current ego trip. "I said bow!" Sakuragi projected and the boys did so.

Haruko laughed, but Rukawa could tell the girl was distracted by something. He caught her watching him and he wondered if he had something on his face.

Her cheeks got red and Rukawa was about to suggest that it was an easy thing to get heat stroke in the summer, so it was good to carry around a water bottle. This girl was Sakuragi's friend after all, it wouldn't hurt to be friends with her too."

"Hi Rukawa-kun." She said and her face got even redder.

He didn't know what to do, so he looked at her and something in his face seemed to make her meep and blush more.

"You're face's like a cement block." Sakuragi suddenly accused him. "You're scaring away Haruko-chan. Fix your face!" Sakuragi demanded and suddenly he had his hands on his cheeks and he was trying to stretch his face into a smile.

Rukawa punched the idiot in the nose.

* * *

**Saturday**

"Yo, earth to foxface. You're gonna get deaf if you listen to those things any louder." Sakuragi yelled and Rukawa shrugged his shoulders and pretended not to hear him over the blast of his CD-player.

They were currrently in the indoor--thankfully airconditioned--basketball court a couple of blocks away from Rukawa's house. The one that was always busy on a Saturday whenever he came, but had suddenly become empty when Sakuragi had showed up and started threatening people left and right to clear out.

Sakuragi shook him on the shoulder. "Don't fall asleep there, or I'm leaving your ass and going to the arcade."

Rukawa was about to say that he was anything but asleep, but then he realized that his face always seemed to be anything but awake.

"You should drink coffee or somethin'" And then Sakuragi was holding out a canned coffee from the vending machine towards him. "Here, drink it and maybe you'll look like a human being."

Rukawa narrowed his eyes--or narrowed them more than they already were--got up, and brushed passed the dolt. "I don't like coffee." It was like his mortal nemesis. Rukawa and coffee did not go hand in hand together.

"Geez, just drink the crap. It's not gonna kill yuh…unless you're like allergic or somethin'. Are you allergic? Cus if you are, I wanna see yuh drink it even more."

"Asshole." Rukawa said and narrowed his eyes so much that they weren't even open anymore. Hmmm. If this kept up, he was going to fall asleep on his feet…again.

However a fist to the ribs abruptly jerked him awake. "Shit. Fine let's go. Don't look like you can practice any. I'll just take you home now." Sakuragi sulked and he shoved his hands down the side of his pants and waddled away.

"You have pockets you know." Rukawa commented, because he was always dumbfounded by the idiot and his habit of shoving his hands down his pants, and was it just him or did that sound very inappropriate.

"My hands are too big for pockets." Sakuragi grumbled and he continued to waddle in self-pity at his abandoned practice game.

They walked to Rukawa's house, which was in a pretty nice neighborhood, Sakuragi pointed out, and then when he reached his house, Sakuragi had whistled and commented on how nice his house was too.

"Well I'm off." Sakuragi saluted and then marched in the other direction.

"You could come in." Rukawa said, then realized that his sleepiness was making him say stupid things. "On second thought-"

"You got anything to eat. I'm starving. I skipped breakfast." Sakuragi belted out in what seemed like one word, and before Rukawa could even turn the knob, Sakuragi had charged through.

"Are you rich or somethin?" Sakuragi asked, now inside his house. Rukawa, by the way was still outside, as he had been so offput by Sakuragi's shitty manners that he hadn't moved an inch.

"Opps, I forgot to take off my shoes. I got mud all over your carpet. Anyway I'll be gone by the time your parents come home, so they'll automatically blame you for it." Sakuragi reasoned and then he disappeared into his kitchen.

"You fuck-head." Rukawa seethed and slammed his door shut behind him. This was the first and last time he was ever going to invite someone into his house. Never again.

"Oh tempura. I got a cravin' for these." He could hear Sakuragi say from his kitchen and he walked in to see the boy devouring the leftovers.

"After your finish, get out." Rukawa warned and walked back out of the kitchen and towards his bedroom.

Five minutes later, he heard someone stomping up to his door and then yanking it open. "Hey, is this your room?" Sakuragi questioned and then plopped himself down on his bed. "Who's that bald guy?" Sakuragi asked and finished off the riceball he had been eating.

"Bald guy?" Rukawa looked over to where Sakuragi was pointing and then had to quelch the urge to knock his lights out when his eyes lighted up on his Michael Jordan poster.

_Sacriledge!!!!_

"You play basketball and you don't know who Michael Jordan is?"

"Tch. You got posters of guys in your room. How gay." Sakuragi said and kicked back on his bed.

"Get out." Rukawa seethed and was about to throttle this idiot within an inch of his life. The world would be thankful to him, really.

"What got your panties in a twist? Don't like me speakin' bad 'bout your boyfriend." Sakuragi nodded at the poster again.

Then Rukawa began to choke him.

"Aw jeez, you can't take a joke boy-lover." Sakuragi teased and Rukawa just wanted him to explode, or implode, or combust or all of the above.

It was at this time that Rukawa realized that they were both on his bed and that he was practically on top of Sakuragi. Rukawa ready to fix this, started to untangled his fingers from around Sakuragi's neck, but then the red-head faster than he was ever on the basketball court leaped forward and barreled into him, successfully pinning him to the bed.

"I'm not a powerforward for nothin'" Sakuragi grinned down at him and Rukawa without another word head-butted the idiot.

"Ow, motherfucker!!" Sakuragi despite the pain to his empty head, didn't rear back like Rukawa wanted him to, but instead head-butted him back. Holy crap he forgot what a hard head this imbecile had.

Rukawa hit the mattress with a thump, his head spinning, as he felt greater weight press down on him. "You just ruined my whole schedule for tha day. I was gonna play basketball, eat some ramen, and then sleep. But you _just_ couldn't stay awake for our match, so I think you gotta make it up to me."

"I think you need to get off of me." Rukawa warned.

"Geez go ta sleep then. You big kangaroo." Well this was a new development. He was no longer a fox, but a kangaroo. How the hell did Sakuragi connect those two things together, Rukawa thougth he would never know. And neither did he care to know. "You don't need to be awake for this anyway." Sakuragi said and the way he said it, someone could easily pass it on as a completely innocent sentence, however…

"Get off me!" Rukawa hissed, and it was now time to panic because Sakuragi was a horny idiot.

"You're such a pansy." Sakuragi challenged, then he got him in some kind of headlock-bear-hug-thing and Rukawa thought that this was not the way you went about trying to have sex with someone.

Rukawa rolled over and took the redhead with him, the idiot now under him as his back was to Sakuragi's front. He tried to get out off the headlock, chokehold-whatever, Sakuragi had on him, but then the wrestling maniac--he watched wrestmania, Rukawa suspected he did--rolled back over so Rukawa was now on his stomach with a heavy Sakuragi on top of him.

"I'm going to call the police." Rukawa said and his voice was muffled by the sheets. "This is rape."

"If you can face the cops and tell them you got manhandled by another guy, by all means." Sakuragi said evilly and then began to pull off his pants.

Eh…he did have a point. Pride was on the line here.

Rukawa threw out his elbow and it connected with Sakuragi's jaw. "Ow, I bit my tongue!"

Heh. If Sakuragi could take all the abuse he planned for him, by all means try it. Rukawa thought with his own sense of justice.

Rukawa threw out his elbow again and nearly laughed outloud when Sakuragi said that he'd bitten his tongue again. Fucker deserved it.

"Cut it out!" Sakuragi whinned and rubbed his now swollen cheek.

Rukawa flung his head back and it connected with Sakuragi's nose. The teen coughing loudly and trying to keep his hold on the other boy.

"This is harder than I thought." Sakuragi admitted and Rukawa never said he wasn't going to put up a fight.

"It'll get harder if you don't get off me." Rukawa warned.

It was silent for a while. "Naw, it's already pretty hard." Sakuragi said and Rukawa suddenly had a sinking feeling that Sakuragi and him weren't talking about the same thing.

Rukawa suddenly felt his track pants yanked off of him and he frowned.

"I _will _kill you." Rukawa said.

"I'll kill you right back." Sakuragi answered and Rukawa could hear the other boy yanking off his T-shirt and shorts.

"I will kill you and bury you someplace where no one can find the remains."

"Not before I get to you." Sakuragi retorted and lowered himself on Rukawa.

* * *

**Sunday **

"Ha, you're limping you stupid fox." Sakuragi said when Rukawa had stopped to tie his shoelaces, but actually really stopped to rest his legs.

"I'm still better at basketball than you." Rukawa retorted and it was the only thing that came to mind that could really get Sakuragi riled up. And let's just admit it, it was true. He was the more skilled player here.

"No you're not!" Sakuragi yelled and some birds squawked away by the echo that his shouting ensued. "I'm a genius. I'm the great Hanamichi Sakuragi and you should know that already." Sakuragi said and shoved his chest out, bragging like the idiot he was. "And you can't say I'm not great with the performance of a lifetime I gave yesterday." Sakuragi had an unholy glint in his eyes that told Rukawa he was recalling the horrible atrocity of daterape that had happened yesterday.

"I hate you." Rukawa found himself saying.

"So can I come over again?" Sakuragi asked out of the blue, twisting his pinky finger in his ear.

"You come within seventy feet of my house and I have the right to use self-defense." Rukawa had a taser in his room that he was especially saving for Sakuragi. Plus he just wanted to try it out for the hell of it. He'd also heard brass knuckles were the in thing this fall.

Sakuragi, sitting on the floor, sweat beading down his face from the afternoon sun and the previous match looked up at the sky. "I can't wait to reach the finals." Sakuragi said and punched his hand. "I'm gonna slam dunk so many points that the score boards are gonna have problems catching up."

Rukawa also sitting down next to Sakuragi and looking over at the redhead, noticing that optimistic grin on his face and the focus driven into those eyes found himself also internally agreeing with the infectious optimism that Sakuragi had.

Yeah. They were going to the nationals to wipe out the competition. It was a pact that had been made between Akagi, made between coach Anzai, between Kogure, between Ayako, between Miyagi and between Mitsui. And more importantly, it was a promise between the two of them, and the last thing they would ever do was back down from a pact, as either would never let the other live it down if he did.

**The End. **


End file.
